Tag: woodroe

How popular is the baby name Woodroe in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, see baby names similar to Woodroe and check out all the blog posts that mention the name Woodroe.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Woodroe

Number of Babies Named Woodroe

Posts that Mention the Name Woodroe

“H.R.H. Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden and Prince Bertil.”Crown Prince Gustaf VI of Sweden welcomed a baby boy named Bertil in early 1912.

The same year Prince Bertil was born, the baby name Bertil appeared on the U.S. baby name charts:

1917: 21 baby boys named Bertil

1916: 28 baby boys named Bertil

1915: 24 baby boys named Bertil

1914: 31 baby boys named Bertil

1913: 17 baby boys named Bertil

1912: 16 baby boys named Bertil [debut]

1911: unlisted

Bertil was the second-highest debut that year, after Woodroe (inspired by Woodrow Wilson, who was elected president in November).

But the early SSA numbers tend to be low, so here’s some SSDI data for a different perspective. (I’m only counting people with the first name Bertil.)

1917: 24 Bertils born (SSDI)

1916: 33 Bertils

1915: 39 Bertils

1914: 47 Bertils

1913: 33 Bertils

1912: 36 Bertils

1911: 16 Bertils

Just about all of the surnames I saw for Bertils in the SSDI were Swedish. Even more interesting, the SSA data indicates that many of these Bertils were born in Minnesota, Illinois and Massachusetts — states with large Swedish communities:

By 1910 the position of the Midwest as a place of residence for the Swedish immigrants and their children was still strong, but had weakened. Fifty-four percent of the Swedish immigrants and their children now lived in these states, with Minnesota and Illinois dominating. Fifteen percent lived in the East, where the immigrants were drawn to industrial areas in New England. New York City and Worcester, Massachusetts, were two leading destinations.

I think it’s safe to conclude that this usage of Bertil was occurring among Swedish immigrants (and their descendants) exclusively.

So what’s the etymology of Bertil? The Handbook of Scandinavian Names says Bertil and Bertel (which debuted the very next year) are “forms of the first element in German names like Berthold, from bert ‘bright, shining.’ Behind the Name simply says Bertil is a form of Berthold, meaning “bright ruler.”

Surprisingly, Bertil isn’t the first U.S. baby name debut we can link to Swedish royalty. Ebba, which debuted in 1888, was inspired by Princess Ebba Bernadotte — baby Bertil’s great aunt.

Though vast majority of the baby names on the Social Security Administration’s yearly baby name lists are repeats, every list does contain a handful of brand-new names.

Below are the highest-charting debut names for every single year on record, after the first.

Why bother with an analysis like this? Because debut names often have cool stories behind them, and high-hitting debuts are especially likely to have intriguing pop culture explanations. So this is more than a list of names — it’s also a list of stories.

Here’s the format: “Girl name(s), number of baby girls; Boy name(s), number of baby boys.” Keep in mind that the raw numbers aren’t too trustworthy for about the first six decades, though. (More on that in a minute.)

I’ve already written about some of the names above, and I plan to write about all the others as well…eventually. In the meanwhile, if you want to beat me to it and leave a comment about why Maverick hit in 1957, or why Moesha hit in 1996, feel free!